


Four Days

by kryss_delrhei



Category: Death Note
Genre: Community: tamingthemuse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 08:14:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,236
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12077121
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kryss_delrhei/pseuds/kryss_delrhei
Summary: After leaving Wammy Orphanage, Matt thought he was done with it all, until his phone rang.





	Four Days

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted to LJ on April 20, 2013.

It had been weeks since he left Wammy’s Orphanage and that was when he got the call.

Walking back to his ratty apartment from the convenience store down the road, Matt lit a cigarette as he juggled several bags of junk food he’d bought. Nothing substantial, but enough sustenance to get him through the all-nighter he was going to pull, since the latest patch of his current MMO addiction was releasing as soon as the servers were back up.

The pre-paid cell he’d gotten a couple days prior started ringing, unnerving him down to the bone and tossing his game plans out the window. What unsettled him the most was that he hadn’t even given anyone his number, didn’t want anyone to be able to track him down.

Yet… someone had.

Slipping his lighter back into his pocket, Matt reached for the ringing flip phone he had shoved in his back pocket. Lifting this orange tinted goggles off of his eyes, pushing his bushy bangs out of the way, leaving them to stick up and out in awkward angles, which he didn’t care. He eyed the restricted number with that flashed across the screen with a clear gaze, before he hit the answer key, bringing the phone up to his ear to listen.

“Matt.”

The simple syllable of his alias, struck him hard, like he was breathless and thrown into a panic. He didn’t answer, as he swallowed, eyes narrowing as he replayed the sound of the voice in his head, knowing without a doubt who the caller was, “How did you find me, Mello?”

A half laugh, half snort was his answer, “Like I always have.”

He could image Mello with that smug smirk on his lips, and yet he didn’t feel any real anger at the blond, which came as no surprise. Matt returned the smug laugh, “You didn’t even know where to start.”

A game.

It had always been their style, playing head games and the like, trying to best each other even if he hadn’t given a damn about any of it, yet he did it because Mello had enjoyed them.

And it seemed he still did.

Mello’s voice was deeper than usual, though it had been almost a year since he’d heard him anyway, “Don’t believe I found you on my own and so easily. Who are you even talking to… Matt?”

Realizing that he was standing on the sidewalk, Matt continued walking down the road to his apartment, puffing on his cigarette held lightly between his lips. “I heard L is dead,” he asked, instead of bothering to give Mello an answer, which would fire the blond up, but he didn’t care.

And that was the thing… he never cared.

“Yeah,” was all he said.

All that Matt expected Mello to say about it.

L had always been a touchy subject to the blond, alive or even if the guy was dead.

“That why Watari sent for you and Near?” Matt asked, feeling that he had drove the conversation down a path that was surely going to hurt Mello, maybe even make him hang up.

“Any other reason he would?” Mello’s voice was on the raspy side, making Matt pause in thought. Mello wasn’t acting like his usual self and something must have happened, big enough to have caused him to call him out of the blue like he had.

Seeing as how he hadn’t care much about him being stuck at the orphanage alone, continuing his grueling tutelage to become a successor of L, that is of course if Near and Mello both failed. Which Matt wished they wouldn’t fail.

Out of everything he hated and cared little for, that was the biggest of all.

He never wanted to be L.

“No,” Matt mumbled around his cigarette, trying to clear his throat, feeling a distant pang in his chest.

With a sharp inhaled of breath, Mello finally got to the reason he had called, without Matt even pushing him to it, “I need your expertise.”

He snorted, “That’s so eloquent of you to ask that way.”

Mello laughed tensely in response, “There any other way I would?”

“No,” Matt inhaled, enjoying the nicotine that filled his lungs, before he exhaled, pulling the cigarette from between his lips, tapping the ash off the end.

“See,” Mello mumbled, before he cleared his throat. Matt hoped he would just hang up, there wasn’t anything in it for him in helping Mello out, but at the same time, he wished Mello would just give him the details. Though, he would never come out right and tell Mello that, he’d learned his lesson many times in the years he had known the smartass blond on the other end of the phone.

“I’ll text you a set of coordinates,” Mello said, his voice tense.

Matt laughed, his own voice tense, expecting anything but what Mello had suggested, “Back to our usual game?”

A game they had played many times at the orphanage, keeping themselves entertained and mind posed for the tutelage that L had instructed that his prized successors undergo.

Mello released a terse chuckle, “Can’t be too careful. Kira killed L and I can’t have Near suspecting that I contacted you.”

“Ah,” Matt smirked to himself, knowing that if he told him that Near had already contacted him before he had left the orphanage, the anger Mello would release on him would be close to Hell. Instead, Matt knew better and kept his mouth closed, not that Mello needed to know his reasoning for leaving Wammy’s anyway. And not that he cared if Mello knew, he just didn’t feel the need for all the hassle that would follow.

“The coordinates will lead you to a clue,” Mello continued.

Pulling a drag from his cigarette, Matt exhaled the puff of smoke, “Making me follow your trail, huh?”

“Haven’t you always?”

Mello always said the blunt honesty truth.

The brunette laughed, “You never gave me the chance otherwise.”

After a quiet pause, Mello continued, ignoring Matt’s jabs, “Four days. If you don’t meet me in four days at the final location… I’ll call it a loss and continue my investigation without you.”

Shaking his head, Matt puffed on the last bit of his cigarette before dropping it to the ground, continuing down the sidewalk to his apartment, “You are shameless.”

He heard Mello snort, before grumbling into the receiver of the phone, “And you don’t care.”

After a brief pause, Matt shook his head, “I’ll see you in four days.”

It took Mello a few heartbeats to reply, “We’ll see.”

And the line went dead, leaving Matt staring at the home screen of his phone. Smiling to himself, he opened the message that came in seconds later from an unregistered number. He stared at the coordinates, knowing he’d have to decipher them before he could actually follow their lead. He closed the phone and slipped it back into his pocket, laughing a little on the inside.

“I have four days. Do you think it’ll honestly take me that long?” Matt mused, feeling the rush of excitement of a challenge.

Maybe when he had left Wammy’s he had intended to never be found again, but for some deep seated emotion, made him feel like he was glad for being discovered. And somehow, in four days, he just knew that it would be the ride of his life.

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: #352 - Shameless


End file.
